50+ Push Notification Ideas You Can Start Using Today

Worried about sending too many push notifications? A lot of marketers are. But our data shows it’s more likely that you’re not sending enough notifications to really engage your audience and impact app retention rates. Get the stats — and more than 50 ideas for high value push notifications you can incorporate into your mobile strategy today — in this post.

As a brand, you’ve got to take this unwritten contract seriously. But our latest data shows that most brands are playing it too safe. As of today, you’re probably not sending enough push notifications to really engage your users and impact app retention rates.

In fact, some brands aren’t sending any push notifications at all — even after their app users gave them permission by opting in.

Think about that: an app user you want to connect with has essentially opened the door for you to come in — and you’re hanging back. How rude!

After opting in, not only do your customers expect to get push notifications from you, they may feel dissed if they don’t. In fact, 95% of new, opt-in app users churn within the first 90 days if they don’t receive any push notifications.

More (High Value) Push Notifications = Better App Retention Rates

Our data study also revealed that apps that send one mobile push notification a day have 90-day app retention rates that are 3X higher on iOS and 10X higher on Android than apps that send none.

As you think about scaling up your push notifications, carefully consider what kinds of push notifications make the most sense for your customers and your brand. And keep push notification best practices in mind — see our top recommendations in the post 5 Things the Best Mobile Notifications Have in Common.

As you peruse this list, grab our handy push notification planning spreadsheet — an editorial calendar that will help you get a big-picture view of the push notifications you’re sending, and stay on track to send them regularly throughout the year.

(Oh, and big bonus: most of these ideas would work equally well for app push notifications and browser push notifications — or both together.)

Last thing: keep in mind that many of the notifications we’ve suggested here can and should be automated — based on in-app activities, location, or other user-level actions. Without automation, scaling up is more time consuming and difficult than it should be. We can help; learn about our automation solutions.

Without further ado, here are a whole lot of push notification examples and ideas for high value push notifications that can help deepen your connection with your app users.

Customer Lifecycle Push Notifications

From onboarding to setting preferences to ongoing retention, create a plan for push notifications that will get your users up and running — and coming back.

Welcome new opted-in users; underscore the value prop of having opted in

Accelerate completion of targeted onboarding steps with notifications prompting users to: Add preferences, complete their profile, and use all of the features of the app: Did you know you can: [feature that will improve their experience]

Rating, Survey or Referral Request Push Notifications

Ratings provide critical feedback loops you can use to improve your customer experience, while referral requests help you grow your user base. Push notifications are a fantastic way to help enable both. Referrals and ratings are a great way to leverage interactive buttons (available out of the box with Urban Airship – no development required).

Ask for a rating or a survey completion related to an activity or purchase your app enabled: How was…[your experience, the product, the show, etc.]

For those who provide a positive rating, send a notification asking them to refer your app to a friend

For any ratings or referral requests, consider using interactive buttons: Want to [rate the app, share with a friend] now? [Yes/Maybe Later]

Loyalty & Rewards Push Notifications

Loyalty or rewards programs notifications can be automated and sent via API, drawing on user-level CRM data. Loyalty program-related push notifications can also be sent through mobile wallet loyalty card passes.

Purchase & Product Push Notifications

Like loyalty messaging, transactional messages are often sent via API and draw on user behavior, triggered automation, and CRM data.While these examples are probably familiar to retail and ecom brands, consider how you could adapt the concept for your app.

Contact activities: Your contact just [updated their profile, posted for the first time in a while, favorited something, made a recommendation, created an event, etc.]

Once a Day/Week/Month Push Notifications

Having a regular, high-value touchpoint is a great way to increase push notification frequency without overdoing it. It’s also a great way to get more mileage and leverage from other marketing activities.

Weekly or Monthly “Pick” — highlight a product or service on a certain day of the week or the month. (For more personalization, set up tagging and send deals based on user preferences)

Newsletter — send a notification to look for a regular newsletter coming to their email or in-app message center (or both).

Pro Tips / How To Series — encourage deeper app use with a tutorial on using different parts your app or your product/service.

Target App Users Likely to Churn

If your users haven’t engaged with your app for a while they may be getting ready to leave for good. Push notifications are one tool to help re-engage them. With our Predictive Churn solution, you can see which users are at risk for churn, then send push notifications to groups at different risk levels with targeted messages. For example:

If a customer is coming in to pick up an item in your store, send a push: Here to pick up your [name of item]? Head straight to the [location]; we’re ready to help!

When a customer is in a certain place within your location, send context-specific notifications to educate, entertain or drive sales: Checking out [shoes, kids clothes, suitcases]? Here’s our latest coupon for that! or Flash sale on concert merchandise for everyone in [section A, aisle 15, etc.] go check it out!

A service or product you ordered has arrived — or is close to arriving: Your [driver, repair technician, lunch] is just [distance or time] away!

Provide wayfinding at a venue: The quickest exit after the concert is through Door B.

Reminders & Status Updates

Keep your users up to date on the status of things they care about:

Reminders: Don’t forget: This Friday is the last day to register for [classes, webinar, training, etc.]

Support Ticket, Maintenance Request or Help Desk Status/Progress: Your ticket has been created; we’ll be in touch soon!

Action required or requested: From turn-based game notifications: It’s your move! to conversation replies: Your contact is waiting to hear back from you push notifications are fantastic for nudging users to take in-the-moment action.

Coupons, Discounts, Promotions & Offers

Get creative (and personalized) with the kinds of promotional push notifications you send. Use the data you’ve got, current events or other current events to keep it contextual.

Opportunistic

Seasonal/weather/calendar-driven offers: Spring is set to spring: do you have what you need to [stay dry, plant your garden, get out of town for Spring Break, etc.]

Social/opportunistic: anything that ties message to the real world: We’re so into the [World Series/hottest tv show/trending hashtag/etc.] we’re celebrating with a special offer for you.

Data in Your CRM

Birthday, anniversary, or other milestone offer

Channel specific offer (mobile only, buy online, pickup in store)

Curated recommendations based on user preferences

Time Bound/Seasonal

End of a season or end of a sale: Last chance! End-of-winter deals are yours until midnight.

Rare, or limited edition items/experiences are available again: [Pumpkin spice lattes are back!]

Seasonal reminders that make sense based on your app’s value proposition. Could include:

Holidays — from “little” ones like National Donut Day to “big ones” like Thanksgiving

Adding Push Notifications as a Channel to Marketing Campaigns

Don’t forget push notifications as a channel when you’re putting together broader marketing campaigns. When eHarmony added push notifications to their marketing mix for a Valentine’s Day campaign, they saw a massive uptick in engagement and membership activations from the notifications. Take advantage of the fact that push notifications are generally going to be seen by your most loyal customers; if there’s a perk you can offer them, in exchange for taking action, that’s a great group to incentivize.

Exclusive sneak preview: Let app users get a first look at a new marketing campaign, product launch, etc.

Combine push notifications with in-app messages, email, videos and more. (You can send a video clip directly through push with a rich notification.)

Announce a new product launch, update or feature via email; follow up with push notifications to the segment of your mobile users who are the best audience for it.

Combine web push notifications and app push notifications whenever it makes sense to do so to get in front web visitors, many of whom probably don’t have your app

We hope that some of these ideas will help you scale up your push notification frequency with notifications that are authentic to your brand, valuable to your users — and help you drive up your app retention rates and your app’s growth and revenue!

What have we missed? Leave a comment here with the push notifications that perform best for you!